Recently, automatic identification (Auto ID) procedures have become very popular among service companies, buy and delivery logistics, industry, manufacturing companies and material flow systems. Automatic identification procedures aim to provide information on people, animals, goods and products on the way.
In many instances the bar code tags that some time ago started a revolution in terms of identification systems are inadequate. The bar codes are very cheap, but the problem is their low storage ability and the fact that they cannot be re-programmed.
The optimum solution from the technical point of view would be storing the data in a silicon chip. The most common electronic data storage device in use in everyday life is the smart card based on a contact field (intelligent telephone card, bank cards). However, the mechanical contact used in the smart card is many times not practical. Transfer of data between the data carrier device and its reader without the need of physical contact or line-of-sight is much more flexible. Ideally, the energy required for operating the electronic data carrier device would also be transferred from the reader by using contactless technology. In view of the procedures used for energy and data transfer, contactless ID systems are called RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) systems.
RFID—Radiofrequency Identification—is a data storing and collecting technology without the need of physical contact or line-of-sight between the data reader and/or writer and the device or tag which stores such data. Said device can be completely passive, exclusively fed by the magnetic or electromagnetic field emitted by the reader/writer, or active, using its own energy for integrally feeding the device or a portion of its functions. This technology has been at first proposed as a solution for tracking and access control systems in the eighties when the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), together with other research centers launched the study of an architecture which would employ resources from radiofrequency-based technologies as a reference model for the development of new applications of product tracking and location.
These studies led to the EPC (Electronic Product Code), where by utilizing resources provided by magnetic or electromagnetic signals, architecture for product identification was defined and thereafter called RFID (Radio Frequency Identification).
Besides, recently the contactless and without line-of-sight identification has become an independent interdisciplinary field, which does not belong to any of the conventional fields, since it combines elements of extremely different fields: wireless technology, semiconductors technology, cryptography and data protection, telecommunications, manufacturing technology and many related areas.
Such instrumentation technology employs devices known as transponders, tags, smart tags, instrumentation tags or markers, which are electronic tags, passive, semi-passive or active under the point of view of the feed source with a microchip and flash memory units, EPROM or EEPROM internally installed. These tags can be tracked by the emission of magnetic or electromagnetic fields generally directed using at least one suitable antenna or coil.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,713,148 relates to a device and system utilizing a transponder, the system being of the general type where a base station conveys an interrogation signal to a remote transponder, the transponder responding with an answerback transmission. The transponder includes a changeable or writable memory, and means responsive to the transmitted interrogation signal for processing the signal and for selectively writing data into or reading data out from the memory.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,873,533 refers to a reader and a marker to passively locate buried objects. This document makes explicit use of the RFID technology, citing buried lines as object to be identified, but there is no treatment of the information. The technology is used for location only, not identification. The marker is attached to the object to be identified or by itself in the underground. The functionality of the device is close to that of a metal detector. The marker has no memory and has a coil antenna. The frequency is from 80 to 160 kHz and 1.4 m depth. The patent states the invention comprises the utilization of an external Reader and a marker as a passive (without batteries) locator for buried objects such as gas and water pipes, making easier the excavation to find them. The marker owns the location information and is placed close to the object to be detected by the Reader. The marker has a coil antenna and does not have any memory. There is no identification according to the “bar code” model (identification number); the information offered by the patented system being that there is a buried object. The application of the described object is similar to a metal detector.
The working of the RFID technology is described in its entirety. The horizontal position is determined as the best marker position. The author considers phenomena such as earthquake and soil sedimentation not as harmful to the physical integrity of the equipment, but to the change in its position which will affect the antenna position and will make the marker inactive. The marker is covered with polyethylene and its frequency is from 80 to 160 kHz. The reading distance is up to 1.4 m. The document relates exclusively to location and does not cite identification.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,850,161 refers to mapping and identification of buried objects, including network and data server. In the server the information processing is carried out by marker identification. The technology is directed to location, but it enables identification as well. The markers are attached to the objects to be located. The data bank has the information of the buried objects location by means of the identification number of the markers. The memory is in the data server. The patent cites buried pipes as objects to be identified. The object of the invention includes the mapping and identification of buried objects, including a network and a server, also for making the excavation easier. The data bank has the information on the location of the buried objects through the marker identification number (bar code), that is, the marker identifications are conveyed to the data server which has the location mapping in the memory. Readers and writers read and write the information in the marker and in the data bank. The document cites buried pipes as objects to be identified. This technology is focused on the technology of data transmission and cryptography for long distance transmission of marker information. The marker is only used for providing the identification number(s) to the network.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,002,461 relates to the location of hidden and fixed objects using the RFID technology with transponder and reader. The patent explicitly uses the RFID technology and broadens the application for hidden objects, not necessarily buried. Buried pipes are cited as objects to be identified. It can locate and identify. The marker has a reading/writing memory of 1,024 bits. The marker fixation is not cited, only it is mentioned that it should be closed to the object to be located. A data bank application is mentioned. Frequency: 13.5 MHz to 2.45 GHz and 1.4 m depth.
The object of the patent is the location of fixed and hidden objects through RFID technology using passive (without batteries) transponders (marker) and Reader. The transponders have a memory. The location is performed based on the identifying numbers of the transponders; the Reader warns when it detects the searched transponder. It is alleged that this system can be used for the tracking of objects, location at Latitude and Longitude, Equipment Maintenance, stock logistics and location of buried objects. The ideal operating frequency is 915 MHz, but the operation can be performed in the range from 13.5 MHz to 2.45 GHz.
Published US Application 2006/0109131 deals with various mechanisms, techniques, methods and systems for handling, labeling, detecting, location, providing maintenance, managing and tracking Hidden Objects using RFID technology, portable data processing units, as well as a centralized computer keeping a data base containing information on a plurality of Hidden Objects, those being buried on the surface or hidden in walls or other structures. The invention can be applied to a wide variety of industries including constructions, utility, government, military, waste water management, etc. This publication introduces an identification and location device for Hidden Objects made up of a transponder inserted into a protecting, water-resistant case. However, there is no mention whatsoever to any support, such as a mesh, a tape, a wire, a cordage, a bar, a tappet, a line, a stud, a mushroom, a pipe, a marker or any other element able to support and dispose several aligned transponders forming one single device according to the concept of the present invention. This publication shows yet a method for the location of Hidden Objects by writing and reading the coordinates of these objects in a RFID device, the device being located close or attached to said object. There is also presented a method for locating Hidden Objects based on the triangulation of electromagnetic waves between the reader and several identifying and locating devices disposed along the Hidden Object.
Brazilian Utility Model application MU8003112-9 relates to an underground warning mesh with safety tape for protecting gas, fluids, electric energy, communication lines and water pipes, mainly in urban zones. It is made up of sinuosity areas along its whole length which can increase the lateral areas. Upon demand of the client, it can be welded to a warning tape. The mesh is made up of honeycombs placed lengthwise to improve strength throughout the years. However, this publication does not describe nor suggest the possibility of RFID instrumentation.
Several patents provide solutions for the identification of pipes, conduits or hidden objects, made up of metal or not, all of them having the same motivation, that is, to reduce costs and nuisances caused by excavations and interventions for locating pipes, conduits or buried or hidden objects in urban and rural zones, as well as to reduce the period of time to locate said objects during fluid leakage with risk of serious accidents.
Broadly, it can be seen that the existing technology enables one to identify buried or hidden objects in a general way or it is directed to application in the location of buried or hidden objects using RFID or the like, but none of them applies said technology to a safety and identification device supported on a mesh, tape, wire, cordage, bar, tappet, line, stud, mushroom, pipe, marker or the like as relates to the application.
The more complete present solutions relate to the installation of meshes or warning visual tapes buried on the objects to be identified. Other solutions use warning tapes covered with metallic stock, those being located with the aid of metal detectors, however this is done at the cost of much trouble caused by the several metal objects buried in an urban ambient. In spite of the existence of several techniques, it is practically unknown to combine reduced cost, practical installation, ease of identification of the objects and safety in the information stored in the system. As a result of the huge variety, practicality and low cost offered by its use a new identification method by radio frequency (RFID) has aroused much interest in this field.
Based on such information, the Applicants have focused their research on a system comprising a device for location and identification with a support shaped as a mesh, tape, wire, cable, cordage, bar, tappet, line, stud, mushroom, pipe, marker, or alike as relates to the application, said support being instrumented with RFID technology, and able to supply all the items required beforehand, so as to provide high dependability of the data acquired in real time, without the need to promote destructive interventions for locating pipes, conduits, cables or buried or hidden objects in public ways, roads, streets or any other surfaces with or without finishing, where it is understood that pipes, conduits, cables or hidden or buried objects also comprises any kind of condition where originally the vision of such object is hindered, either that it is buried underground, hidden by the soil or any apparatuses, encapsulated, wrapped, hidden within walls, barriers, blocks, wells, galleries, submerged or immersed in any support or conditioning means, the use of the system not being restricted to the condition where the object to be identified is apparent or visible.
Thus, the technique still needs a device and system for location and identification of pipes, conduits, cables or buried or hidden objects without the need of an any invasive and/or destructive work, such device being instrumented based on a transponder with RFID technology being inserted in a safety and identification device with a support shaped as a mesh, tape, wire, cable, cordage, bar, tappet, line, stud, mushroom, pipe, marker or the like, the system where said device is inserted and the method for utilizing said system being described and claimed in the present application.